As the standard of living is being raised, foods having a high colory and high cholesterol content are increasing in our eating habits. Furthermore, aging society is now being advanced to accelerate the increase in the number of patients suffering from hyperlipemia and arteriosclerosis caused by hyperlipemia. This is a serious social problem.
In the pharmacotherapy for hyperlipemia and arteriosclerosis, the reduction in the lipid concentration in the blood is mainly conducted, but no medicine capable of reducing the arteriosclerotic nidi per se has been developed yet.
Since patients suffering from arteriosclerosis have characterisic lesions, i. e. thickening of intima and cumulation of lipids, medicines effective in reducing the lipid concentration in the blood are used in the pharmacotherapy as described above. However, on the basis of the recent biochemical knowledge, it has been found that foaming of macrophages is a main cause for the formation of the arteriosclerotic lesions. It is, therefore, expected that the arteriosclerotic lesions per se can be reduced by inhibiting the foaming of macrophages.